Technical Field
This invention relates generally to seatbelts. More particularly, this invention is directed to seatbelts that might be used to secure a child seat in place. Specifically, the invention relates to a direct or manual locking retractor assembly that is only able to be actuated after a locking tongue on the seatbelt webbing has been interlockingly engaged in a buckle assembly and a control mechanism has subsequently and purposefully been activated by a user.
Background Information
Federal law in the United States requires that passenger seats in a vehicle be provided with a seatbelt system where a lap belt portion of the system is lockable. The lap belt portion is utilized to secure a child seat to vehicle seats in a safe, secure manner. These seatbelt systems are known as Automatic Locking Retractors (ALR).
The typical manner of securing a seatbelt in place with an ALR type seatbelt system requires that the user place the child seat on the car seat in the desired orientation and then slowly and steadily pull the seatbelt webbing out of its housing until no further webbing can be withdrawn therefrom. The user then has to carefully thread the locking tongue that is provided on the webbing through a specially provided seatbelt channel on the child seat. The locking tongue is then inserted into the seatbelt buckle. The user then has to manually take up sufficient slack in the webbing so that the child seat is snugly and firmly retained against the vehicle's seat. This is accomplished by feeding the webbing back into the housing while pushing downwardly on the child seat. When each section of webbing being fed into the housing is released, the ALR automatically works to prevent any part of the webbing from being withdrawn once again from the seatbelt housing. According to guidelines, the webbing has to be fed back into the housing up until the point that the child seat will not tend to move more than one inch to the left or right or one inch to the front or back when manipulated by the adult performing the installation.
While ALR systems work well to secure a child seat to a vehicle seat, these systems have some unforeseen issues. There have been a number of incidents over the past few years where children in the rear seat of a vehicle while playing with a seatbelt have accidentally activated the ALR mode of the seatbelt and have become tightly entangled therein. In some instances, the entanglements have been severe enough to require cutting of the seatbelt in order to release the child. These types of entanglements have been particularly prevalent in instances where the seatbelt is being misused, i.e., not being used properly. Even adults have accidentally triggered ALR systems with similar results.
Another issue with presently known ALR systems is that they require that substantially the entire webbing be withdrawn from the seatbelt assembly in order to activate the retractor mechanism. In some instances the user will not realize the ALR system has not been activated or they may not even know that the system needs to be activated and, consequently, the child seat installed with the seatbelt may not be adequately secured in place. So, the seatbelt may not lock properly and therefore any seat secured thereby will tend to be loose and therefore not safe for use. In addition to this, a new weight limit for child seats secured by LATCH went into effect in February 2014 limiting the combined weight of the seat and child to 65 pounds. LATCH systems secure the child seat to a specially installed seatbelt tethers that are anchored on the vehicle's frame. Because of the new weight limit, young children may need to be moved out of their tethered child seats and into regular seatbelts. However, this may pose a safety hazard because of where the seatbelts may contact smaller children. Parents may want to use a child seat for that child but since the tether cannot be utilized, the seatbelt is the only option for securing the child seat in place.